County with no senator no more

SAN ANDREAS - The same legislative redistricting that gave San Joaquin County a state senator with deep local roots left Calaveras County at least temporarily an orphan.

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By Dana M. Nichols

recordnet.com

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Jan. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Dana M. Nichols
Posted Jan. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Senate office for Mother Lode

State Senator Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, is providing services to Calaveras, Amador and Mono counties until voters in those counties and others in the 8th Senate District elect a state senator in 20...

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Senate office for Mother Lode

State Senator Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, is providing services to Calaveras, Amador and Mono counties until voters in those counties and others in the 8th Senate District elect a state senator in 2014.

For assistance, contact Dana Jorgensen, district director, at (209) 233-9140 or by email at Dana.Jorgensen@sen.ca.gov. The district office is at 33 C Broadway, Jackson, CA 95642.

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SAN ANDREAS - The same legislative redistricting that gave San Joaquin County a state senator with deep local roots left Calaveras County at least temporarily an orphan.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission that finished its work in 2012 put Calaveras into District 8, an even-numbered district. Senators serve four-year terms, and the elections are staggered every two years, so only half are elected at any one time.

Even numbered districts won't be up for election until 2014.

Calaveras was formerly in the 1st Senate District represented by Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville. Gaines in November won re-election to the newly drawn 1st District that no longer includes Calaveras.

The residents of Amador and Calaveras counties are among roughly 2 million Californians who temporarily have no elected state senator. About another 2 million Californians are in areas with two state senators because of the way the old and new district boundaries overlap.

But being an orphan doesn't necessarily mean being left alone and without help. The Senate Rules Committee as one of its first actions in the new session named senators to serve each of the orphaned areas.

The choice was made based on geography rather than numbers.

If it had been done by numbers, then liberal Democrat Leland Yee of San Francisco would have been tapped, because he represents the old 8th District. Yee, however, would have been a poor fit for the conservative, heavily Republican Mother Lode.

Instead, the committee chose Tom Berryhill, a Republican who represents the nearby 14th Senate District, which includes much of the eastern rural San Joaquin Valley, including Ripon, Escalon, Oakdale and Clovis.

Berryhill spokeswoman Eileen Ricker said the senator has already opened a district office in Jackson and has named Dana Jorgensen as director for that office.

"We thought that was a good choice. He's got a long résumé representing that area," Ricker said.

Jorgensen formerly worked as a district representative for Gaines, as well as other legislators who served the region over the years, including Dave Cox and Rico Oller.

The 2012 redistricting in San Joaquin County, in contrast, ended a period when none of the state or federal legislators representing the county lived in it.

In the 5th Senate District, which includes all of San Joaquin County, for example, voters elected Democrat Cathleen Galgiani, who grew up in Stockton and currently lives there.